Post Top Ad

Oct 21, 2018

Sale of forms: APC rakes in N12.6bn from sale of forms to aspirants

JOHN ALECHENU
The All Progressives Congress realised N12.635bn from the sale of its
Presidential, Senate and House of Representatives expression of interest
and nomination forms for the recently concluded APC primaries held
across the country.

SUNDAY PUNCH arrived at the figures after computing the cost of the
forms and multiplying it by the number of aspirants who paid for and
collected same to participate in the primaries.

Only President Muhammadu Buhari was supported to collect the forms to
contest the presidential primary. The president’s supporters were said
to have paid N45m to obtain the forms on his behalf.

Governorship aspirants paid the non-refundable fee of N22.5m each to
obtain their forms as of the close of sales; 171 aspirants were
confirmed by the party to have paid for and obtained the forms. When the
figure was multiplied by N22.5m, it amounted to N3,847,500,000 or
N3.847bn.

For the Senate, 386 aspirants paid N7m each to obtain the forms and when
the number was multiplied by the total number of aspirants, it brought
the figure to N2.702bn.

No fewer than 1,587 persons paid N3.8m each to obtain the party’s
nomination forms. When the number was multiplied, it amounted to
N6,030,600,000 or N6.03bn.

When the sums were put together, they amounted to a grand total of N12, 625,100,000 or N12.625bn.

Efforts to speak with the new APC National Publicity Secretary, Lanre
Issa-Onilu, were unsuccessful as of the time of filing this report on
Friday.

Calls to his mobile were neither answered nor returned. A response to a
text message sent to him on the subject was still being awaited as of
the time of filing this report.

It was however gathered that the party leadership opted to increase the
cost of its forms to raise the needed resources to conduct the primaries
and also prosecute the 2019 elections.

The APC National Vice-Chairman (South-South), Hilliard Eta, had, in an
interview with SUNDAY PUNCH, said, “Anybody who cannot afford the cost
of our forms has no business running for an election.

“We all know elections anywhere in the world are expensive ventures. You
have to be prepared because you will require money for logistics, to
print posters, T-shirts and other items.

“As a party, we have made conscious efforts to ensure that we do not dip
our hands into public treasury to run the party as was the case in the
past.”